THE first day on a new job can be disconcerting, but few people, if any, experience what Gregg does in the low-budget indie “New Guy.”

The yuppie’s cubicle in an anonymous, high-rise office building is plastered with hundreds of Post-its left behind by the previous occupant, a “60-year-old virgin” now in jail for killing an intern he thought was after his job.

The weapon was a stapler, possibly the bloodied one Gregg (Kelly Miller) finds in a drawer of his new desk.

His boss wants him to send a fax, but he can’t because some guy is hogging the fax machine. Grown men sob in the elevator; a large, remote-controlled toy car roams the halls, its operator unseen; a woman warns Gregg, “Things are not what they seem here”; and all the phones in the office mysteriously shut down.

To top off the bizarre day, Gregg finds himself locked in the office after quitting time – and he was so looking forward to dinner with a woman he only recently had met.

Written and directed by Bilge Ebiri, a movie critic for New York magazine and the New York Sun, “New Guy” gets off to a funny start, but the film falters once Gregg gets locked in, turning into a sloppy attempt to create a thriller.

This is Ebiri’s first feature after directing four shorts. He shows talent, but shouldn’t give up his day job just yet.

Running time: 85 minutes. Not rated (violence). At the Two Boots Pioneer Theater, Avenue A and Third Street, East Village. Through Nov. 17.